Last Chance for Lake Trout

It was a very good weekend to be up north. After getting packed, the smoked fish guy and I left Duluth about 10:00 a.m. on Thursday morning and headed north to the Gunflint Trail. After a quick lunch, we headed across the portage into one of our favorite lake trout lakes. It was another beautiful, sunny day-continuing a string of good weather this September. We caught a couple lake trout right away after the portage on the way to the campsite. After getting set up we paddled to the honey hole on the point and caught several more eating sized trout before dinner. Dinner was freestyle lake trout, steaks, and mushrooms. Meals are always top-notch with the smoked fish guy along.

Friday turned out to be a very memorable day. After breakfast burritos, we went after the trout. It was an epic day of fishing. Not usually ones to count fish, for some unknown reason we started keeping track of our catch for the day. We ended up with 31 lake trout. We caught them 30 feet down over 50-70 feet of water. We got them on spinners, spoons, jigs, and slip bobbers. Basically we got them on anything we put down there. To top it off, it was a gorgeous day-we even got a swim in during lunch. That evening we had double Kek Burgers (lake trout bacon cheeseburgers) and were able to tune in a Twins victory on the radio. What a great day!

On Saturday the weather finally started to turn with some wind and clouds being present. Still, we caught quite a few trout, although it was less than half of what we caught the day before. It was on Saturday that I noticed my map case wasn’t attached to the canoe like usual. I couldn’t find it anywhere. It had the permit in it, so there was some concern. That night we cooked up a BWCA jambalaya (red beans and rice, sautéed andouille sausage and vegetables, chunks of lake trout) and, amazingly, we were able to tune in the Iowa Hawkeyes football game on the radio. The smoked fish guy is a massive fan of the Hawkeyes and he was in 7th heaven as they pulled off a big upset of Penn State.

The wind came up overnight and we packed hurriedly on Sunday morning due to impending rain. It rained and blew a good amount that morning and we only caught one lake trout on our way to the portage. We didn’t find the missing map case on the portage and it wasn’t in my truck. We got the gear loaded up and hit the road, listening to the Vikings as we went. To my chagrin, Mr. Farve pulled off the miracle victory. Does this mean I have to cheer for him? I got home mid-afternoon and was pleased to find my map case stuck in the front door with a nice note from a gentleman from Pine City who had found it on the portage. He got my address from the permit. That was sure nice of him. It wrapped up a very good little canoe trip.

Nature Moment: As I made the journey from camp to the latrine on Saturday, I noted the unusual amount of mountain ash trees. The trees, heavy with ripe berries, were in several locations around camp. I remember that the berries attract lots of birds and as I was seated and contemplating life, I heard some chirping right above me. I looked up to find myself only a few feet from two ruffed grouse in a mountain ash tree. Like typical grouse they didn’t seem to care about me, and just continued to eat the berries.